It’s time to celebrate because a new national holiday is on the way.
Spearheaded by Dr. Rashae Barnes, the founder of Evals Equity, the announcement of National Black Funding Day has been shared through a press release. The national holiday was registered through National Day Archives.
Set to be observed on Sept. 30 each year, the holiday’s intent is to honor Black entrepreneurs in the funding space, shed light on their lack of access to venture capital funding, and call attention to educational resources for Black-owned businesses.
National Black Funding Day was launched not only to recognize Black entrepreneurs’ impressive feats in the funding world but also to create room for more through education and empowerment.
“We need to educate the masses on the disparities in funding across the board and provide resources to help underserved communities secure funding for their businesses,” Barnes shared in the press statement. “We also need to celebrate the strides made thus far for black founders across the country.”
As previously reported by AfroTech, Barnes entered the space by launching Evals Equity — a 501(c)3-structured investment fund. The fund works to provide Black women and women of color access to funding.
“Almost every Black woman and minority woman that I’ve spoken to about funding for their companies, they all are almost 99.9 percent self-funded from their own pockets,” Barnes told AfroTech in a previous interview. “But why are we self-funding ourselves when there’s money out there? So, our job is to try to create resources to help people get funding in the form of grants.”
On National Black Funding Day, there will be educational events and fundraising efforts held and celebration of Black entrepreneurship and innovation. In addition, as a response to Black entrepreneurs receiving less than 2% of overall venture capital, “large corporations and businesses are encouraged to make donations to black founders and their organizations across the board.”
